Political power, for individual women, was like a reputation for philosophy or a gift for painting. You had to be the daughter or wife of the right person: it was not possible to make a career, as a man sometimes could, by sheer talent for fighting or arguing or making. You also had to work in the interests of the family and keep a low personal profile.

Plutarch, who believed that women were endowed with courage and intelligence, collected instances of Great Deeds by Women (Moralia 242–63). These occur in crises: his heroines do not have, and he does not advocate, an acknowledged social or political role. He admires Aretaphila (257de), who withstood torture, conspired successfully to kill a tyrant, declined an invitation from the people to join the government, and retired gracefully to private life in the women’s quarters. When women are found, in Plutarch’s time, holding magistracies and priesthoods (as they did in Asia Minor in the first and second centuries A.D.), or are honoured by their cities as public benefactors, they too are praised for modesty, charm, and self-restraint, as though everyone needed reassuring that no departure from convention was intended. In fact, it cannot be shown that such women ever chaired a meeting or addressed an assembly, or did more than foot the bills and acknowledge the applause. Some actually have public spokesmen; some are obviously the Lady Mayoress, the wife of the man who had the job.